Kingdom Immortan
In the scarlet glow of Frater Unhol lies a kingdom raised by will and blood. Standing out among barbarity, it is the sole power to have earned the blessing of the Omnissiah. This is the realm of Immortan, promised land among the ruined monuments and rubble. The throne of Immortan The throne of the Kingdom Immortan is imbued with arcane power, a link to the broken minds all machines stranded in Frater Unhol's gravitational wake. This noo-sphere connection elevates the throne from a mere symbol of authority to a conduit of direct power, bestowed upon one soul to claim the title of King of Immortan. At the same time, its strain upon the conscious mind is too great for some who would deem themselves worthy of such glory and would burn them out in a blaze of forlorn dreams. King Zef Pater Patriae Immortan He who assumed Immortan's throne holds sway over the kingdom's vast domains, no less than sixteen hundred greater realms, hosts of lesser stations and uncounted outposts, remnant wreckages and hidden sites. Ever contested, the throne has been held by the first King Zef, Pater Patriae of the Kingdom, Immortan, since his ascension. As the kingdom holds no official calendar and was not recognized by the Imperium as a polity for the first few centuries, the exact age of the realm is not known. However, the original king has long outlived the lifespan of any natural ratling in recorded history. Most speculate the mantle of the king is handed down through generations of the same dynasty, perhaps even clones. The truth of the matter, as with so many imperial leaders, is unknown, however. Throughout his reign, the king has vied for the favor of the Cult Mechanicus Cambria, as much as he fought rivals from within the realm. For all his aspirations, the king Zef knows the Machine God will not suffer excess in any form and will maintain the blessing of Immortan's rule only for as long as the king is considered a valued soul. Crucible of Abhumanity According to the judgment of several ecclesiarchial missionaries sent to assess the Kingdom Immortan, its clans are little more than savage tribes, barely adhering to the tenants of the Imperial Cult and, by some, deemed outright heretical. Consisting predominantly of abhumans and un-orthodox strains, the populous of Immortan can make for a fearsome display to any commoner of the Imperium. Their myriad strains are further splintered, their mutations increased by the intense radiation, both of natural and artificial sources, permeating all throughout the gravity well of Frater Unhol. While concentrated efforts of the Ecclesiarchy to outright cleanse the entire kingdom with fire have been thwarted by the Adeptus Mechanicus on more than one occasion, the regions of Unhol are by far not free of brutal cleansing operations conducted by Skitarii or even the own kin of Immortan. Any strain of humanity falling from the emperor's light and tipping over into chaotic influence are relentlessly purged and fed to the flame by cruel harbingers of purity. Strains and Clans of the Kingdom United under the banner of Immortan's throne are many clans and exclaves in one feudal federation. Many of these were conquered, old leaders overthrown, killed or banished by the champions of Immortan and pledged their lives to the new lord of the noosphere-throne. The most favored among these clans come to shape the kingdom whole, contributing resources, knowledge, population, and force to the greater cause. Immortan's Chosen According to the legend of Immortan's conquest of the rings of Frater Unhol, he chose every warrior of his Warband in hand-to-hand combat, fighting continuously for three days and nights without rest, until he was satisfied with their number. He then vowed to lead them by the example of a true imperial crusade, and to grand the greatest of his champions the right to settle those worlds they freed. This promise formed the foundation for the clan of Immortan's Chosen, who form the core of the Kingdom today. The chosen are nigh exclusively of ratling breed, with the few exceptions of new blood through marriage or further mutation. They pride themselves in exceptional metalwork and combat proficiency, still mustering some of the kingdom's most feared warbands. Shipmongers When the force of Immortan swept over the rings of Frater Unhol, many lowly scavengers bent the knee to the new order. Of those, whoever proved themselves worthy to the greater cause, many were given the right to continue scavenging in Immortan's domain. These are the shipmongers, scouring the youngest debris fields for entirely functional vessels, components, and wreckage. They trade mostly among themselves and other clans, but at times send ambitious envoys to the enclaves of the Adeptus Mechanicus, when they suspect to have found something of value to the servants of the Omnissiah. Among the shipmongers are the most regular humans of the system, and a wide assortment of different other abhuman strains. Still, the majority of them are ratlings themselves. The shipmongers are renown most for their communion with the machine spirits newly arriving in Frater Unhol's well. It is said most of them understand a bit of the binary tongue and can soothe the minds of distraught ghosts with songs and promises to be remade. Phlogiston Cult Resources are scarce upon the rings of Frater Unhol, especially sources of reactor fuel and promethium. Because of this, large sources of combustible material, fuel containers, and coolant chambers are the subject of worship to several clans. Most dominant among these is the Cult of Phlogiston, who sent prayers to the Machine God to grant them access to reactor cores. From discarded wrecks, they painstakingly extract the precious elements which make void-ships fly, at great risk to their own, feeble organic bodies. The intense radiation experienced by them led the Phlogiston Cult to devolve into a number of highly volatile strains, of which many are horribly disfigured and short-lived. Off-shoots of them regularly collapse into heretical practice and die out before long. Still, their service to the system is too invaluable to rid the universe of them outright. Powdermakers While the scavengers of the Phlogiston Cult are masters at obtaining precious elements from the wreckage left of greater machines, the powdermakers pride themselves in creating rare and volatile materials through the art of their alchemic craft. They are chemical experimentators and in a way aspirants to some particular orders of the Adeptus Mechanicus, specializing in the arcane lores of elements and materials. Utilizing equipment forged from the remnants of machinery and ingredients siphoned from both wrecked systems and the gaseous giant Frater Unhol itself, they have been successful in creating all manner of necessary substances for use in the kingdom's machines. Similar to the shipmongers, it is said that they maintain some clandestine ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus and that some of the most successful of their number have indeed been awarded the ascension to tech-priesthood as a reward for their acquired skills. Powdermaker enclaves are extremely reclusive and shunned even by many of their allies. As a result, little is known about their physiology. However, they are believed to have developed their own unique strain of abhumanity, brought about half by a genetic mutation, half by intended manipulation on themselves. This strain allegedly produces a greater intelligence, but also a vital dependency on a strange alchemical cocktail which they need to ingest constantly. Gasfarmers Perhaps the most unusual clan to be part of the Kingdom Immortan are the gas farmers of Frater Unhol. Originally an enclave of Techpriests belonging to the Adeptus Mechanicus, the population of the gas-farming stations in low orbit around the giant seems to have deviated over time. Due to mutations as a result of radiation and un-checked reproduction among the workforce, a new strain of abhumanity emerged from these orbital platforms. This strain is believed to have a natural affinity to technological augmentation, even requiring it to live beyond the year of thirty. Nearly deaf, they developed an extreme sensitivity to air-pressure and movement instead, suiting them perfectly in the industrial environments of the gas farms. The production and tithe of the enclave remained unaffected by those changes for a long time, until the Kingdom Immortan took over the rings of Frater Unhol and general acceptance of the abhuman strains by the Adeptus Mechanicus became more widely known. Suddenly, the gas farms put their much greater populous to full use, nearly doubling the efficiency of atmospheric expeditions and gas production. Unhol Longshanks Adapted to life in the low-gravity environments of the debris belts, long-shanks are the most populous abhuman strain in the vicinity of Frater Unhol. Specializing in the construction of elaborate habitats from debris and wreckage, they are the architects of many of the rings' greatest structures. The massive networks of old stations, hulks, and web-like installations have long outgrown the immediate necessity and are in many places being built simply to put the flowing debris to some kind of use. This devotion to continue the machine-like work beyond the organic requirements has made the Unhol Longshanks a favored breed among some tech-priests of the Cult Mechanicus Cambria. Astrography The Kingdom Immortan lies in the deep gravity well of the Gas Giant Frater Unhol, on the edge of the second system Brumbana. Its reaches are shaped by millennia of imperial wreckage, decommissioned stations, and ships forming multiple rings at various ranges in the orbital sphere. Within those rings lie ever-changing regions of discarded matter, remnant resources and exotic fields produced by half-dead machinery. Decaying systems of weaponry, defensive measures, and engine cores pose a constant additional threat to anything traversing these realms. On occasion, responsive systems create entire chain reactions to devastating effect, going so far as to dissolve entire rings and reforming into other, different formations. This makes exploring, much less charting the domains of the Kingdom Immortan a nigh-impossible task, surrounding the planet with a constant air of jeopardy. Forces From the warriors and scavenging bands of the kingdom's many clans arise the forces of Immortan. Most of these belong to their respective clans still, lending units to the greater cause should the need arise. Many more are mercenaries at times, venturing out even beyond the domains of Immortan, some even beyond the confines of the system in search of riches and at the behest of masters from afar. But their true loyalty lies always with the kingdom above all, and in times of need, they return to aid the king on his throne. Immortan Warbands The warriors bred in the wreckage fields of Immortan are prodigies of war in its most vicious form In their domain of voidward ruins, they have no choice but to master boarding actions and voidship defense, weightless combat as well as survival in tombs of ancient malevolent machinery. Deadly, close-quarters clashes are their calling, wars fought in labyrinthine battle spaces turned against them by the very ghost of the machine, defending against superior numbers in irradiated catacombs or the naked vacuum of the void. This kind of battle is infamous among the armsmen of the imperial navy and the soldiers of the guard alike. The former abhor it, for it is not their way of, the latter because it takes place in a world they cannot know. To the many warbands of Immortan, there is no other path to glory and so they achieve mastery in voidward combat nearly without compare anywhere in the Sector Gondwana. Immortan Voidriders Fighting for glory and survival along Frater Unhol's debris rings are the voidriders of Immortan. These warriors of space are relentless in their pursuit of victory and pious in their worship of the ghosts in their machines. Their starship steeds are wrought from the wreckage of discarded vessels, the debris of ancient freighters and broken in-system fleets. Such concoctions would be deemed heretechnical, if not for the utmost devotion of Immortan's shipbuilders to the spirits of their craft. They do not twist the forged metal, nor force systems into unholy amalgamations, but solely seek to extend the useful life of every component to an extent beyond the craft and skill of anyone outside the Adeptus Mechanicus. This noble intent struck a chord of sympathy with some influential figures in the Cult Mechanicus Cambria. While they would never be convinced of its worth by the word of the abhumans alone, they cannot question the soothing binary hum of re-awakened machine-spirits allowed to serve their original function again. Relations The kingdom persists only by the grace of the Omnissiah, made manifest in the edicts of the Cult Mechanicus Cambria. By protecting, cataloging and soothing the broken remains of once venerated machinery, the abhumans of Immortan justify their existence in the eyes of the machine god's servants. For as long as this is the case, the Cult Mechanicus will continue to supply more wreckage to the rings of Frater Unhol and ensure that no radical puritan crusade will come to vanquish the entire Kingdom with fire. Beyond their symbiotic bond with the Adeptus Mechanicus, the clans of the Kingdom Immortan maintain further ties to many lesser factions in the Subsector, many of which are on the fringes of society, bordering on criminal elements of the underworld. They are the sorts of groups considered the lesser evil compared to the unknown which would replace them, should they be shattered. In the eyes of the Triumvirate and the mighty nobles of the sector, the Kingdom Immortan is little more than rabble. But in its own right, it is the megalopolis, the utopian center of a sector all of its own: the second world below, in the shadows and underhives and darker corners of imperial space. So far, only the Adeptus Mechanicus officially recognizes the worth in this. But their rumors abound of various other contacts, some high nobles, even inquisitors, who have come to value the underground network spanning from the Kingdom Immortan out into all segments of the Sector. The most frequently cited and yet most unproven of these relations is a direct link between the ratlings of Kingdom Immortan and the ancient rogue traders of Port All. History In the aftermath of the Thetys Surge, around two millennia ago, the feuds between scavengers upon the rings of Frater Unhol grew violent enough rouse the attention of Forge World Cambria. With the might of the newly formed Triumvirate stretched thin over the course of the weak centuries, warlord emerged from the exponentially grown fields of wreckage and reached out to gather riches further and further from the ancient graveyard around the gas giant. Eventually, the magi of the Cult Mechanicus Cambria dispatched a small expedition force to quell the uprising of various warlords and banish them once and for all from the holy site of dead machines. It was during this time, that one warlord emerged among the scavenging masses, and recognized the signs of impending doom. Some say this vision was granted to him in communion with an ancient machine spirit, which still used long-range scanners to survey space beyond the Brumbana II system. Others say it was genuine precognition granted to the chosen leader by the Emperor of Mankind. Perhaps sheer luck was truly deciding fate. This warlord was a ratling by the name of Zef, strong by the standards of his species and well respected for leading his Warband rightly and true. But he knew this alone would not be enough to avert the fire of the servants of the Omnissiah. Many before him had ventured out to take on the Imperium and failed. So instead, he sought not the strength to oppose the Mechanicus forces coming, but instead something to offer them. Thus, he came to make a plan twofold: First, he would send a message about the incoming fleets of the Omnissiah and call for all forces to rally against them. In this way, he would deliver the true traitors among the scavengers directly to the forces of the Omnissiah and at the same time rid himself of rivals. Then, secondly, his forces would not join them on the way out from Frater Unhol to meet the perceived enemy. Instead, he would scour the newly-freed regions of the inner ring, braving wreckages more dangerous and hostile than anyone before. There, he would crush what rivals yet remained and plunder the stashes of his rivals for all things of value. Fate seemed to favor him, and in his swift action, he quickly conquered now abandoned strongholds of his rivals, who had been foolish enough to think to challenge the Imperium. As they were slaughtered with ease on the outskirts of the system, the king Zef found an artifact of the magnitude he had been looking for. A command throne aboard an ancient, half-forgotten vessel, deemed cursed and thus feared by all other warlords. Many, legends said, had tried to assume control over it, but had been killed by the malevolence within. Accounts vary on how exactly Zef ascended the throne. Whether he trusted in his blessed soul or manipulated something with ancient knowledge he had gathered about this machine is unknown. Only one thing is said with certainty about this day: The king ascended and sat upon the throne, and as the first soul in millennia, he did not die. Instead, his mind branched out into a thousand ways, the spirits of all waking vessels within the debris field. This sudden surge and presence, the convergence of a human mind with such ancient machinery, sent a pulsing signal throughout the system. And it was felt by the servants of the Omnissiah and they knew someone worthy awaited them at the heart of that system. By those witnesses who gave that account, the king was then named "Immortan", the immortal one to survive certain death upon the throne of ancient machines. 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